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Preliminary Screening for Grant Funding

If your organization is new to the Ahimsa Foundation, below is information on the invitation-only preliminary screening process, funding guidelines, and criteria.

Preliminary screening invitations are carefully administered and extended only to selected organizations to ensure an equitable process. Please do not share this webpage or information about the preliminary screening process with individuals outside your organization.

Animal Care Guiding Principles

To support the safety and care of all animals, the Ahimsa Foundation embraces these guiding principles. The foundation prioritizes funding for organizations that demonstrate these principles in their animal care practices.


Nutrition: Plentiful nutrition is provided for all animals in the organization's care that is appropriate and healthy for the species of animal. Dietary considerations for unwell animals are provided in consultation with veterinary or wildlife professionals.

Housing/Exercise: Housing and exercise provided are appropriate for the species, size, behavior, and condition of all animals in the organization's care. 

Medical Care: Animals are assessed and monitored for health and wellness, and any medical conditions are treated in consultation with veterinary or wildlife professionals. 

Sterilization/Birth Control/Breeding: Sterilization or birth control, as recommended for the species, is provided by the organization before offering animals for adoption, returning to feral cat colonies, or placing them into a sanctuary. Appropriate monitoring and care are provided for animals following sterilization procedures. The Ahimsa Foundation does not support the intentional breeding of any animals except for those considered endangered species.

Euthanasia: Procedures are in place to care for animals who are suffering and not expected to recover. Any euthanasia protocols must include consultation with veterinary or wildlife professionals.

Safety Measures: Consideration and planning have occurred in the following areas: 

- All animal areas, both indoor and outdoor, are secure against animal escapes and unauthorized human entry. 

- Housing/exercise areas are free of hazards and take into consideration animal interactions that could cause harm.

- How to evacuate or secure animals during natural disasters/weather events, fires, or other emergencies. 

- How off-hours monitoring of animals occurs in the event of emergencies or unauthorized entry.

Adoption/Sanctuary: When possible and appropriate, animals are prepared for and made available for adoption, utilizing screening procedures to help ensure success, or wildlife are rehabilitated and released into their natural habitats. If animals cannot be adopted or released back into the wild due to medical or behavioral conditions, they receive lifetime sanctuary care.


*For organizations that provide resources and support for other animal care organizations in lieu of direct care, please consider these principles in the selection of the organizations with which you work. 

**Submitting current videos and thorough descriptions in a full funding application is required to help evaluators assess how your organization aligns with these principles. 

General Funding Guidelines

These guidelines apply to all types of funding provided by the Ahimsa Foundation.

The Ahimsa Foundation will not grant funds exceeding 10% of an organization's total prior-year revenue (e.g., if prior-year revenue was $100,000, annual grant funding will not exceed $10,000).

Grant awards for organizations new to the Ahimsa Foundation will not exceed $5,000 per year. 


Any future grant awards will generally not exceed $25,000 per year. 

The Ahimsa Foundation will not accept funding applications from organizations with annual operating budgets consistently exceeding $5.5 million.

Annual Animal Care Funding

These grants are awarded for direct animal care expenses, such as food, veterinary care, animal supplies, medications, etc. To be invited to apply for an annual animal care grant, an organization must meet all of the following minimum criteria. The Preliminary Screening Letter of Intent is focused on gathering information about an organization's compliance with these criteria.

Organizational Governance & Leadership Criteria

1. Minimum of three members on the board of directors, with members holding a minimum of the following offices: President/Chair, Treasurer, Secretary/Clerk. The majority of members should be independent and unrelated. The board member identified as President/Chair should not also hold the Treasurer position.


2. Must be registered in the United States of America as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The organization must operate as a public charity, not a private foundation.

Fiscal Management Criteria

1. Ability to submit basic, clear, accurate financial reports, including an annual budget with revenue/expenses and actual prior year revenue/expenses in U.S. dollars. We expect full transparency in financials, including grant/foundation, bequest, reserve/emergency, in-kind/non-cash contributions, and endowment information.


2. Must maintain a minimum of one other grant/foundation funder other than the Ahimsa Foundation. These are foundations/grants that you make an application to in order to receive funding. The Ahimsa Foundation wants to ensure that other funders review your organization's financial and operational materials and find it worthy of funding.


3. Must submit, by the requested due date, a Grant Impact Report for prior Ahimsa Foundation funding. Failure to do so will render the organization ineligible for its next applicable grant round.

Animal Impact Criteria

1. Demonstrate safe and appropriate animal care practices (nutrition, housing/exercise, medical care, sterilization/birth control, euthanasia, safety measures, adoption/sanctuary). See Animal Care Guiding Principles for more information.

Independent Board Makeup

For Annual Animal Care Funding, there is an Organizational Governance & Leadership criteria that states: The majority of members should be independent and unrelated. This refers to nonprofit governing boards and is taken from IRS requirements on Form 990. Below is further explanation of what the IRS considers 'independent' and 'unrelated' when it comes to nonprofit governing boards. For further explanation and examples, please see the current instructions on Form 990 on the IRS website. Please carefully review this information to ensure your organization meets the criteria of a majority of board members that are independent and unrelated.


Independent

The IRS stipulates a four-part definition of independence for members of 501(c)(3) boards. To be considered independent, your directors can’t:

  1. Be compensated as officers or employees of your organization or a related organization.
  2. Receive more than $10,000 in compensation for work as independent contractors from your organization or a related organization during the tax year (excluding reasonable compensation for services provided as a board member).
  3. Be involved in — or have close family members involved in — transactions with your organization that provide material financial benefits and that must be reported on Form 990, Schedule L, “Transactions with Interested Persons.”
  4. Be involved in — or have close family members involved in — a transaction with a taxable or tax-exempt related organization that must be reported on Schedule L.


*Explanation taken from Mauldin & Jenkins, CPAs, mjcpa.com


Unrelated

For IRS purposes, relationship among board members is narrowly defined, typically confined to blood, marriage, or outside business connection. Blood relations are family members extending to mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, and grandmother or grandfather. Marriage relations can include spouse, son or daughter-in-law, and mother or father-in-law. Former spouses are NOT considered to be related. With regard to business, two or more business partners serving on the board, while collectively owning 35% or more of a for-profit company, are considered related, as are co-workers that have a superior/subordinate relationship at the company they work for. The IRS considers related board members to not be completely independent. Even if the people in question believe they are not subject to influence by virtue of that relationship, the IRS doesn’t buy it. They consider it to be a conflict-of-interest that impacts the charity. 


*Explanation taken from Foundation Group, 501c3.org

Preliminary Screening Process

Your organization has been invited to participate in the Ahimsa Foundation's Preliminary Screening Process. This process is intended to ensure your organization meets the eligibility criteria presented above and is a good fit for the foundation's funding priorities. 


All of the Ahimsa Foundation's grant-related materials, including applications and reports, are submitted and housed in the Foundant grant management system. The first step is to take a couple of minutes to complete the online registration process for your organization. Please have ONE user "Create a New Account" for your organization. This user should be the primary grant contact. You will also be able to submit the name of your Executive Officer (i.e., Executive Director, CEO, Board President) as part of the registration process. You can add additional users to your organization later by contacting Jen Bonnett. 

Please register no later than Friday, September 18.
Click Here to Register in Foundant

After Registration

Once you register, you will receive an automatic email from the Foundant system with the subject: "Ahimsa Foundation - Registration for Online Grant Management System." Check your spam/junk, promotions, social, trash, and any other folders where this email may have been received. All future email communications about grant funding will be sent via the Foundant system, so please add @grantinterface.com to your address book or contacts. If you cannot find the email, contact your IT support and ask them to add @grantinterface.com to the list of allowed domains.

After you complete registration, you will be contacted about when you can move forward with the Preliminary Screening Process outlined below.

Preliminary Screening Letter of Intent

Timeframe

A complete Letter of Intent (LOI), including attachments, is due no later than Friday, October 16, 2026, by 5:00 pm EDT. If your submission is missing the requested items or is not presented as requested, you will not have an opportunity to resubmit items and will not be considered for a funding invitation.

LOI

LOI's must be submitted via the online grant portal linked below. You can save the LOI and come back to it later. We have provided a downloadable PDF of the application questions to help you prepare your answers. Below is a link to helpful tutorials on using and applying for a grant in the grant management portal.


How to Access the LOI

Use the link below to log in to your account in the grant management portal. Once logged in, you should see something similar to the picture below. Click the 'Continue' button to begin working on your LOI. If you do not see the LOI on your homepage, please contact Jen.

LOI Question List

Use this question list as a guide. Remember that the LOI will autosave as you work on it, so you can leave and come back to it at any time.

AF Preliminary Screening LOI Question List (pdf)

Download

Required: Attachments

The documents below are required for your LOI to be complete. You will be asked to upload files in the online form at appropriate points. You can find more details and templates in the online form.


  1. 501(c)(3) IRS Determination Letter
  2. Itemized Prior Year Organization Revenue & Expense Report - A detailed profit and loss report from your bookkeeping software is preferred, but a template is also available in the online form.

Online Grant Portal: LOG IN

Please bookmark the below link on your internet browser.
Click Here to Access the Online Grant Portal

Online Grant Portal: TUTORIALS

Click Here to Access Tutorials about the Online Grant Portal

Please do not hesitate to contact Jen Bonnett, Executive Administrator, with questions.

Jen@AhimsaFoundationBoston.org (857) 248-5007

Copyright © 2026 Ahimsa Foundation - All Rights Reserved.

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